Nearly 100 tons of ice, cut in blocks from frozen New England lakes earlier in the year, arrives in Calcutta. The first shipment of ice imported to India soon fires up a market for cold drinks in a country unaccustomed to such a chilly luxury.

Archive for the ‘Food and Drink’ Category

Nearly 100 tons of ice, cut in blocks from frozen New England lakes earlier in the year, arrives in Calcutta. The first shipment of ice imported to India soon fires up a market for cold drinks in a country unaccustomed to such a chilly luxury.

1550: Chocolate is introduced in Europe, and the Mexican drink creates a passion that endures after nearly half a millennium. Europe came late to the joys of chocolate. Native to Mexico, Central and South America, cacao cultivation dates to at least 1250 B.C., according to archaeologists. Mayans grew cacao trees in their backyards and used […]

1910: Ward Baking Company puts a fully automated bread factory into operation. The mechanized factory in Chicago churns out hundreds of perfect loaves a day, untouched by human hands. Is this century-old achievement the greatest thing since sliced bread? Not quite. Read on. Perhaps nothing is a more basic food staple in Western culture than […]

1902: Joe Horn and Frank Hardart open the Automat at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia. It’s America’s first coin-operated cafeteria. Customers would put nickels into slots, turn a knob and open a little glass door to get their food. Horn and Hardart used Swedish-patented equipment they’d imported from Berlin, which already sported a successful “waiterless […]

1495: The Scottish government records it has commissioned Friar Jon Cor to make Scotch whisky — the first mention in print of an elixir which has since brought down many a government, made friends of enemies and enemies of friends, lubricated good, great and bad writing, and … well, suffice it to say a touch […]